Facebook
X
Pinterest
Email
Text/SMS
Random
Subscribe
Answer
The first problem Paul deals with in Corinth, a church full of problems, was sectarianism. As part of his rebuke, Paul reminds the church that his priority in ministry was preaching the gospel, and he tells them, “Christ did not send me to baptize” (1 Corinthians 1:17). Greater than baptizing people is preaching the gospel to them.
The context of Paul’s statement that Christ did not send him to baptize is important:
One of you says, “I follow Paul”; another, “I follow Apollos”; another, “I follow Cephas ”; still another, “I follow Christ.” Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Were you baptized in the name of Paul? I thank God that I did not baptize any of you except Crispus and Gaius, so no one can say that you were baptized in my name. (Yes, I also baptized the household of Stephanas; beyond that, I don’t remember if I baptized anyone else.) For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel—not with wisdom and eloquence, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power. For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. (1 Corinthians 1:12–18)
The apostle decries the division among the Corinthian believers. They were behaving as if there were four different churches: the Pauline church, the Apollonian church, the Petrine church, and the Christian church. No, Paul says, you are all part of one church. Christ is not divided. It does not matter who baptized you; you were all baptized “in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” (Matthew 28:19), and the church has one Lord (Ephesians 4:5).Paul was sent to preach a specific message. He was literally “set apart for the gospel of God” (Romans 1:1). As the Lord told Ananias soon after Paul’s conversion, “This man is my chosen instrument to proclaim my name to the Gentiles and their kings and to the people of Israel” (Acts 9:15).
The message of the gospel—Jesus’ sacrificial death for sin and His subsequent resurrection—is the only message that saves (see Romans 1:16). It is appropriate that Paul focused on proclaiming the gospel everywhere he went. Among the Corinthians, he chose to “forget everything except Jesus Christ, the one who was crucified” (1 Corinthians 2:2, NLT). We are saved by grace through faith, not by works (Ephesians 2:8–9). That includes the work of baptism.
First Corinthians 1:17 is a refutation of baptismal regeneration. If baptism is necessary for salvation, why would Paul say that he is “thankful” that he did not baptize any but a few of the Corinthians (1 Corinthians 1:14)? And why would he say, “Christ did not send me to baptize”? If baptism is necessary for salvation, Paul would essentially be saying, “I am thankful that you are not saved,” and “For Christ did not send me to save people.”
Paul preached the gospel; he kept his focus on the saving work Christ “lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power” (1 Corinthians 1:17). To require baptism as a part of salvation destroys the meaning of grace, replaces faith with ritual, and empties the cross of its power to save.
